Star Wars: Bloodlines: The Guardian
by revanchist1994
Summary: This is my Star Wars fanfic series, Bloodlines. The series follows the tale of Aden Shan, a Jedi Knight with a name that takes a lot to live up to. The series takes place around 3,550 BBY. This is my first real writing project, so keep that in mind! Hope you enjoy, there will be more to come, and I appreciate feedback!
1. Prologue

STAR WARS: Bloodlines

Book one: The Guardian

**Prologue**

**J**ust below the Alderaan's atmosphere, a shuttle was moving across the deep blue sky, streaked with white clouds. The small shuttle made its way over the trees in the forest mountain, the terrain lush with vegetation. The shuttle found a small clearing, in which stood a small, wooden house. The shuttle, small enough to fit in the clearing, started to make it's landing. Slowly, the shuttle made it's descent as it extended it's landing gear. At last, the shuttle touched the ground, and let down the loading ramp. Out of this ramp stepped two beings, a Kel Dor and an Ithorian, both clad in simple brown robes, the standard garments of the jedi. The Kel Dor's name was Durin Kah, and the Ithorian's name was Amwah Mal.

The two walked onto the grass and looked towards the domicile at the other end of the clearing. The place looked humble small, but comfortable. The Ithorian looked over at the Kel Dor standing next to him.

"_Is this it, master?"_ The Ithorian asked his counterpart in his native tongue, Ithorese.

"_Yes, Amwah. This is it," _said the Kel Dor, also in his native language of Kel Dorian.

"_What's the child's information again? Just to make sure I have it right."_

_ "__Name: Aden Shan. Age: three standard years old. Species: Human. Gender: male."_

The two set off down the clearing, making their way to the doorstep. The Kel Dor felt nervous, apprehensive. This part of his job was always the most difficult. As a jedi recruiter, it was his job to convince parents all around the galaxy to give up their force-sensitive children to the jedi order, and then take those children from their homes, to the temple to be raised as jedi. But not all parents were welcome to this, understandably. Some even tried to assault him and his past padawans at the mere mention of taking their children away from them.

The parents of the child he was about to take were certainly reluctant to give up their son, in fact the woman cried hysterically several times during their many meetings, even the father shed tears as they agreed to give their boy to the Jedi. Maybe it was because they knew it would be best for their force-sensitive son to be raised around those with the same power, ones that could teach him to control it, and use it for good. Maybe it was because the boy was a direct descendant of many powerful Jedi, such as his great-great-grandmother Satele Shan, a past Grand Master of the order, and his Ancestor the great Jedi Revan, savior of the galaxy. Perhaps looking on his lineage, they felt it was his destiny to be a Jedi. Whatever their reasons, they agreed. And a good thing too, even in the boy's youth, Durin Kah could sense how strong the boy was in the force, and a person that powerful would have to be raised with the wisdom of the jedi to guide them. But even still, Durin could tell that even though she had caved in and agreed, she still didn't want to give her son to the order. She still had many unresolved fights going on in her mind over this, and that made him feel uneasy about how things might proceed.

As he stepped up to the house, he reached out and knocked on the wooden door, and waited. They heard footsteps and the sound of voices inside, mostly of children. The door opened and they were greeted with a woman with jet black hair, who seemed to be in her late thirties, and from the smell they could tell she had just been cooking an Alderaanian meal. She had been smiling as she opened the door, but as soon as she saw who stood before her, the smile drained from her face almost as fast as the color. The Kel Dor could sense the dread that was now coursing through her. He was a jedi, after all, as was the Ithorian standing next to him.

"Oh….you're….you're here." Said the woman, her eyes showing fear, sadness, and….something else. Anger? Behind the woman there were two young children in the main room, a boy of about six standard years old, and a baby girl, looking into a holo program. "What is it mother?" Asked the boy, looking over at the two aliens standing at the door with curiosity. "It's nothing, son," said the woman, her voice cracking.

"Yes ma'am. At the time scheduled_,"_ replied the Kel Dor, this time in Galactic Basic. He knew that she hoped that somehow, some way they wouldn't come. That for some reason the whole thing would be called off. But it wasn't, and they were here.

Tears immediately welled up in the woman's eyes, and she turned away, unable to face them. The Kel Dor felt terrible for the woman, he could feel the agony building up inside her.

Into the main room walked a man with dark brown hair and a trimmed beard. As his eyes found the two standing in his doorway, he stopped right in his tracks. The color drainined from his face, just like the woman, as did every ounce of joy. He opened his mouth, as if to speak, but closed it after a silent pause. He then nodded his understanding, and walked out of the room. The woman then walked over to her son, bent over so that her face was level in his ears and whispered something in his ear. The boy jumped up from the furniture, his eyes wide, going from his mother to the jedi at a rapid pace. "Already?! No, no not yet!" yelled the boy, his eyes alive with anger. The woman started sobbing in earnest now. "Sweetie, this is what's best….it's what we-we've decided to do." She said through her tears, all effort going into keeping her voice steady.

The man walked in, now carrying a small boy, younger than the other boy, but older than the baby girl. His hair, reaching halfway down his neck, was as dark as his mother's. He was sleeping soundly in his father's arms, not a care in the world. The woman went to the child immediately, covering him in her arms and kissing his head.

"Goodbye, my son," she said quietly. She took the boy into her arms, and with more pain in her eyes than words could describe, handed the boy over to Amwah. The Ithorian looked startled at being handed the human child, and looked over to Durin Kah curiously. The Kel Dor gave a quick nod of his head, and the Ithorian strode across the room, exited out the door and headed for the shuttle.

The Kel Dor looked upon the parents with pity. The woman was sobbing into her husbands shoulder while he did what he could to comfort her. Durin gave the woman on pat on the shoulder, and walked out to join Amwah and the boy.

Durin was halfway to the shuttle, his padawan less than a meter away from the loading ramp with the boy when the heard shouts from inside. Durin looked at the house in alarm, he felt a disturbance, and great surge of rage coming from inside.

They heard voices, the man had shouted; "Lya! Lya no!" and a split second later the door burst open with a bang, flying back and ricocheting off the wall. The boy's mother stormed out, her face contorted with desperate rage. Her eyes were wild, almost inhuman. Her appearance was so alarming, Durin almost didn't notice the blaster at her side.

"I don't want this! Give me my son! Give him to me now!"

The woman was screaming at them, her voice dripping with hate, and echoing all around the forest.

"Amwah, get the child inside, now!" Durin yelled at the Ithorian, and picking up pace, his padawan obeyed.

Her boy now in the shuttle, the woman screamed in fury, and raised the blaster level with Durin's chest, and fired.

In that small instant, all Durin Kah could do was react. With blinding speed he ignited his lightsaber, the yellow blade slicing through the air, and deflected the blaster bolt that would have killed him.

There was a pause between the two, the Kel Dor male and human female. This pause seemed to last an eternity, however in reality it was only one second. After that second was over, the woman's face softened, both of them knew what had happened. She then sank to her knees, her hands clutching at her chest, from which blood was seeping through her shirt. With one last look of desperation she fell over.

"Nooooooo!"

The man's cry was desperate, filled with pain. Right as he got to the doorway, he saw his wife fire at the jedi, who ignited his lightsaber and deflected the bolt. But the bolt went back, rebounding on his lightsaber and went through her chest, through her heart. He ran to her, but it was too late. He crashed to the ground beside her, rolled her corpse over, and held her body as tightly as he could to his, as if he could give her his own life force if he clutched her hard enough. He wished he could.

"No…." The Kel Dor whispered into the air. He hadn't meant for this to happen. He merely wanted to stop the bolt from hitting him, he didn't want to kill her. He ran across the clearing, about fifteen meters to where she once stood, and knelt down beside her husband, who was now sobbing over her body. The Kel Dor didn't know what to say, how could you apologize for something like this? But should he apologize? He only acted in self defense, she was the one who fired at him, after all. However, a Jedi's job is to protect and preserve all life wherever and whenever possible. His species were known for seeing morality in black and white. He was a rare exception.

"Just….just go," the man said, still clutching his wife. "Leave….please," and his sobs continued.

Durin didn't know what else he could do, and so he retreated slowly back to the shuttle.

The Ithorian set the boy down in one of the shuttle's empty seats. It was small, empty except for the boy, himself, and the two pilots. His heart was racing. Amwah heard the blaster shot, and felt the death of the woman a second later. She must have fired a shot at his master, who would have ignited his lightsaber and deflected the shot, probably back towards the woman. He wouldn't have done so on purpose, but nevertheless the woman was now dead. Amwah wasn't sure what to do, he was only a padawan. Now the child had woken up, and instantly started crying, the sound echoing loudly around the interior of the shuttle. He didn't know what to do with a crying human child, so he set the boy in one of the shuttle seats, sat down across from him and waited. His Kel Dor master took a surprisingly short amount of time to come back. He came up slowly through the loading ramp, his face blank with shock at what had just transpired. The sound of the child's cries seemed to snap him back to reality. He walked over and stared at the boy. He felt pain emanating from him, carried by waves of anguished anger. This alarmed Durin more than anything that had happened so far, and that said a lot. What he felt coming from the child was disturbing.

The Kel Dor looked at the boy and knew what it was that had woken the boy up.

He had felt the death of his mother.


	2. Chapter one

**Chapter one**

** A**den was running as fast as he could. The jungle brush of Dxun seemed to want nothing more than to get in his way. The trees and bushes might as well have been jumping directly in front of him, blocking his path on purpose. Behind him, he could hear the monstrous beast's roar; hear it crashing through the brush as if it were nothing.

At this rate, he would soon be getting digested.

Pulling a metal hilt from his belt with his telekinetic ability, he pressed a button on the silvery piece metal, and an energy blade activated, blazing blue in the green jungle. Slashing through the dense brush of the jungle, the hum of the energy blade mingled with the sounds of his frantic sprint, and with the loud crunching sound of bushes and small trees being crushed by enormous footsteps rushing behind him. With each step from the beast behind him, there was a loud "Boom" as each footstep landed, and he felt the ground vibrate beneath him each time. Clearing his way in front of him, he found it much easier to make his way through the jungle forest. The beast was gaining on him through, from the volume of the footsteps behind him, and from the way the ground shook from the crashes of the monster's feet, it was twenty meters or less behind him.

And this thing could clear that in a matter of seconds.

Sprinting as fast as he could, he skidded to a halt as he almost ran off a cliff, and into a stream over fifty meters below that was supplied by a waterfall that was a long distance to the side. He was out of options, and the beast was charging behind him.

Realizing his time was running out fast, he grabbed his grappling hook from his utility belt, his last chance of escaping with his life. Aiming it towards the top of a nearby tree, a hook blasted out of the end, and wound around a thick, sturdy branch. The wire that was attached to the hook started pulling back into the device, while the hook remained firmly attached to the branch. That meant Aden would soon be flying up and into the tree. In that instant the beast finally made its way to Aden. Rearing its head, the jungle rancor gave a great roar of triumph, thinking it had finally caught it's meal. It raised an arm bigger than Aden, and swiped for him. Just as the giant hand was about to get a hold of him, the wire finally pulled him up, milliseconds before the rancor would have grabbed him, and made a meal of him. Soaring towards the tree, Aden thanked the force for the impeccable timing. Landing on the tree and planting his feet on a branch below, Aden settled himself into a standing position in the tree, his torso bent slightly forward because he had a large pack and a T-86 blaster rifle strapped to his back. Aden briefly entertained the idea of shooting at the beast from up here, but all that would accomplish would be to anger it further, and waste every bit of ammunition he had. Aden peeked over the branches and down at the Rancor. It was in such a state of fury as Aden had never seen before. The beast was running all around the tree, trying to swipe up at him, roaring its rage at him, giant globs of spittle flying out of its mouth.

But for all its furious rage, for all its wasted efforts, it was all for naught. Aden was thirty meters from the ground. The beast couldn't reach him, and Rancors couldn't climb. This was one of the few flaws in its predator instincts. If you found yourself being chased by a rancor, and all else has failed, your best bet would be to find higher ground. If you went out of its reach, the beasts would lose interest and eventually leave you to find other prey.

This particular Rancor had it in for Aden though, and the monster would not let up. As the minutes went on the giant beast was still in a rage, swiping up at him, getting more exhausted yet more determined as time went on. It had chased him through the forest for a good two hours, it wasn't about to let him off that easily. Finally, as it seemed to give up, the beast gave one mighty, frustrated slash of its claws at the thick trunk of the tree. When it did this, much of the surface bark was slashed away, and the trunk shifted slightly in the ground from the force of the blow. The Rancor seemed to notice this, for it looked at the tree curiously.

"Oh no…." Aden said under his breath. He knew what was coming.

The monstrous beast swiped away at the trunk, the spirit of the hunt seeming to come back to life inside it. The Rancor unleashed a furious flurry of strikes, as hard as it could, against the tree. The trunk was knocked more and more to the side with each massive blow.

"No no no no NO NO NO NO!" Aden yelled as the Rancor, realizing its legs had more muscle, gave one strong kick and the trunk of the tree gave way completely, making a snapping crunch as it broke free from the roots.

But the tree was falling the wrong way, the Rancor had meant to make it fall sideways. But the tree fell backwards, over the edge of the cliff and towards the water below. Aden held onto the trunk for dear life, as the tree descended down the cliff, gaining momentum. He could hear the rancor give the greatest roar yet, enraged that its prey had gotten away again. He felt that whooping sensation in his stomach that one experiences when in free fall, the feeling spreading throughout his whole body. The air seemed to be blasting up behind him, his hair getting blown around as he fell rapidly towards the stream below, still hanging on to the branches with his back to the tree trunk and facing the sky above. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, Aden felt the force of the landing, and the tree might as well have landed on duracrete. The water rushed in and seemed to smack him from all sides. Water rushed violently up his nostrils as he was submerged instantly, and his ears popped painfully from the sudden pressure. Thousands of pieces of wood splintered away, as the tree trunk spun around in the water, being carried on by the strong current. The pieces of branch and bark turned the water from crystal clear to a murky brown, there was so much splintered wood in the water. It looked as if there were thousands of brown fish of varying sizes swimming all around him, and for all his visibility they could have been. He was amazed there was still anything left for him to cling to.

He felt something detach from his belt from the force of the current and brush up against his arm as it was swept away. Cursing in his head, Aden figured with his luck that would be his aquatic breather, a device that would give you hours of oxygen by filtering out the carbon dioxide out of the air that humans lungs exhaled, and recycling the fresh oxygen back to you. Aden was spun and pushed every which way by the force of the current, and he struggled to hold his breath. Throughout the length of the stream they flowed, the water going well above twenty kilometers an hour. More than once Aden came dangerously close to being ground up against sharp, jagged rocks. Then the stream finally came to an end, and merged into a large lake. Aden and his tree were carried a ways further by the momentum from the stream, and then it finally slowed. When the tree finally stopped in the middle of the lake and began to settle, Aden let go of the branches, and started swimming up towards the surface. Quickly checking his belt, Aden's fears were confirmed as he felt for his aquatic breather, and it was gone. No matter, he had no intention of coming back into the water unless he had to. Five or six meters up Aden swam, his lungs beginning to ache. Finally he broke through the surface, and not a moment too soon, having held his breath for a good five or six minutes straight. For a human, that wasn't bad. Some species, like the Selkath from ocean world of Manaan, could naturally breathe underwater. Aden was jealous of this ability as he coughed and spluttered, trying to catch his breath.

Aden looked around him, searching for the nearest land. Turing in a full circle, he spotted the nearest lake beach, and began to swim towards it. As he made his way to the beach with a breaststroke, his thoughts turned toward his companions, and what had become of them. He came here with his master, Jex Zanthaar, and two other pairs of jedi. His two best friends in the order, Sira Marr, a Miralukan female; and Ty Devrel, another human male one year older than Aden himself. Their masters had also come on the mission. Sira was seventeen standard years old, Aden himself was nineteen, and Ty was twenty. Despite his friend having one year seniority, Aden had more experience than Ty out in the field, and often his friend would often come looking to him for aid.

Right now though, Aden was the one in need of aid. He and his companions were on Dxun, a jungle moon of Onderon, looking for members of the crime organization called The Exchange, who were illegally selling large beasts, such as rancors. They had found the spot where the deal was going down, and all involved surrendered, But at the last minute, one of the Exchange members unlocked the durasteel cage that the Rancors were in, and let loose the beasts on their Jedi captors. Three of the five Rancors went right for Aden, and it was all he could do to run and get separated from his companions. One of the Rancors he had been able to trick into falling into off of a tall cliff, hurtling hundreds of meters to his death. The other had gotten bored of chasing him and went off after a nearby Boma. The other, though, was only spurned on by his fellow's failures.

And now here he was, soaked and swimming towards the beach that was ten meters away. As he was swimming though, Aden felt a sudden warning, a flash of danger given from the force itself. Something was now coming after him, and it wasn't on the land. His heart now beating considerably faster, Aden ducked under the water and looked behind him. A giant predator fish was swimming as fast as it could towards him. It was a good five meters long, and two meters around, large eyes protruding from the sides and locking onto him. It opened its large jaws from both ends, showing five rows of teeth, each of which was at least five inches long, and sharp, ready to tear Aden into shreds. Not knowing what else he could do, Aden drew his lightsaber once again from his belt, thankful that it didn't slip into the water like his aquatic breather had. He felt one small instance of fear, but it was quickly snuffed out by the adrenaline now flooding his brain. As the water predator closed in on him, its jaws gaping open, Aden ignited his blade and swung it right into the roof of the creature's mouth, piercing through the flesh. The creature reared back, burning pain shooting through its scalded mouth, and swam quickly away, no longer wanting to attack but to escape.

Aden went back up to the surface and swam the rest of the way to the lake beach. He lifted himself up onto the sandy ground, the water streaming through his clothes and backpack. Luckily everything he had on him was waterproof, including his lightsaber. Otherwise he wouldn't have been able to ignite the blade underwater, and he shuddered to think what would have happened then. Aden always had a phobia of water creatures. But he'd decided long ago that he would never let any fear keep him from acting. He sank to his knees, adrenaline finally giving way to exhaustion. His body was more than fit, but with the long trek through the jungle with his Jedi companions, getting chased by a rancor for two hours, falling fifty meters into a water stream that carried him to the waiting jaws of a water predator, and then the swim to the shore, he was ready for a rest. But there would be time for rest, and that time wasn't now.

Aden sat down on the ground, and reached out with the force, reeling in the essence of life around him. The forest was teeming with life, so much so that it was almost overwhelming as Aden reached out to them all with the force. He couldn't feel anything that would be a threat to him. Besides what was in the water, there weren't any large predators for Kilometers. As he sat there Aden weighed his choices. As far as he saw, he had two options. He could take the small tent that was in his pack (The tent was made with a material that could shrink to fit in his backpack, and expand to regular size when taken out.) and set up a camp right here, where he would be relatively safe for a certain period of time. Eventually all creatures would need to get to water, and that included large predators like the Bomas, or maybe the fearsome Zakkegs. Perhaps even the escaped Rancors would find their way here, the one that had been chasing him certainly wasn't far off, even if Aden couldn't sense him in the immediate vicinity.

Or, he could continue on, and try to find his friends and their masters. He hoped they had escaped okay, though he was sure he would have felt if any one of them had perished.

Aden didn't like the thought of waiting for something to come along and decide to make him its meal, so he got up, his aching legs sending him signals of protest, and continued on through the dense jungle.

Aden was thankful nothing else wanted to bother with him as he trudged on through the jungle, not even bothering to clear his way this time. He would have been easy prey, with how tired his body was. He had multiple surges of adrenaline in a span of a few hours or less, and now his body was crashing badly as a result. His legs felt as if they were made of iron, and his back felt as though someone had punched it multiple times wearing durasteel gloves. After two hours of tedious trekking though the forest, Aden stopped, clutching onto a nearby tree. Every part of his body was sore, every muscle ached with exhaustion. He couldn't go on like this. He had no doubt that he could handle the simple hike, but if another predator had a go at him, he wanted his reflexes to be as fast as they could be, and his body was much too tired to efficiently fight off a large beast. Closing his eyes, he tried to reach out with the force. He felt the energy field, the very thing that made all life possible. He beseeched it, willing it to flood him with rejuvenating energy. Instantly his body felt refreshed, his limbs and back no longer aching, his muscles coming back to life. Giving a deep breath, he opened his eyes again, feeling much better. He continued on, now at a much quicker and efficient pace.

As the hours went by, the sun was getting lower and lower, and the temperature dropped accordingly. Goose bumps appeared all over his arms and neck, but he didn't care. He had always liked the feeling of cold air, it felt invigorating to him. He took advantage of this and amplified this feeling with the force, so that he was more energized than before this mission began. There were a couple things, however, that did annoy him. He could feel his stomach rumbling under his tan jungle combat suit. A trained Jedi could sustain themselves for weeks using only the force. But that didn't stop Aden from wishing he had a nice hot meal in front of him. As he trudged on, he could feel winged insects landing and crawling all over his skin. There would be the ominous buzzing sound in his ear, and then he would feel the prickling feeling on his neck or arm hair that told him another bug was after his blood. Constantly he was swatting himself all over, as the insects, and indeed the whole jungle, seemed to wage war with him. As the sun sank behind the hills a few kilometers away, it got drastically darker, the sky became indigo colored, streaked with crimson. If he didn't find his friends soon, he would be stuck in a jungle filled with predators, and in the dark. Aden didn't like the though of that. Of course his comlink was damaged beyond repair when he tripped on a large jagged rock while being chased by the rancor. "Damn cheap gadgets," he thought. All he could do was continuously reach out with the force, hoping to get some response back from one of the other Jedi, but so far he's been disappointed.

Then, when it was the darkest it had been yet, Aden felt something, another life form. It wasn't a friend though, and he knew that something was now on his tail. Wait, no. _Multiple_ somethings were on his tail. It was a whole pack. Aden ran as fast as his body would go into a small clearing nearby, turned around and waited.

One by one, a large pack of Maalraas came into the clearing, fierce and aggressive. These predators looked like a cross between a feline and a reptilian species. They had giant fangs that protruded out of their mouths, and long slender feline bodies, wrapped in scaly flesh. These agile creatures were no problem to handle, so long as their numbers were low, but in large packs, they could be dangerous. And this was the largest pack he had ever seen. There were about twelve of them, all encircling him. All were staring at him with a ravenous hunger in their eyes, ready to tear into his flesh and feast on him.

He wasn't about to let that happen though. He pulled his lightsaber into his hand and ignited his blade for a third time that day, bathing his surroundings with a blue glowing light. His eyes and face reflected the blue hue from the blade. The Maalraases continues to encircle him, snarling and hissing at him, trying to frighten him. But Aden was a hard man to frighten, and he snarled back at them. One of them made a bold charge, wanting the prey for itself, and he charged right back, screaming and making himself appear as large as he could. The single Maalraas whimpered and ran back to join the pack. And on he waited, his senses alert, his body poised on the edge, his blade held out in front of him. But a thought occurred to him. He would rather kill them from a distance than have to get up close and personal. Of course Aden didn't mind up close and personal, so long as it was against one opponent. So instead, he deactivated the blade, and slung his rife around and grabbed it. The second the light was extinguished, the entire pack went for him, snarling and charging. Aiming in their general direction he fired multiple rounds. The entire pack became suddenly very skittish, and they all ran off together back into the jungle.

Satisfied, he slung his rifle behind his back, and reignited his lightsaber, once again surrounding himself with the light of the blade.

But as he turned around to continue his journey, he saw that it wasn't him that made the Maalraases run away. Five meters away he saw it; a giant, fearsome Zakkeg. Half the size of a fully grown rancor, and with extremely strong, thick, armored hides, these beasts were easily the most fearsome on the entire moon. They were comparable to the mighty Terentateks, though not quite as much of a nightmare as those beasts. Silently, he cursed himself for not detecting this huge beast before now. The Maalraases had distracted his senses. Zakkegs were a huge challenge to take down, even if you had backup, and Aden was on his own. Or was he?

He reached out with the force, feeling the life forces around him, and his hunch was confirmed. Smiling, he charged the beast, taking the monstrous creature by surprise. The Zakkeg charged forward, roaring as loud as it could, sending a frightening echo all around the jungle. Less than a meter apart, the Zakkeg went on its hind legs, ready to rush down and crush Aden. This was what he wanted, though. He opened his left palm, pointing it straight toward the still standing Zakkeg, and surged a great rush of energy into the beast, making it topple over onto its large, armored back.

As soon as this happened, a second human sprang from out of the bushes, and onto the Zakkeg's large stomach. This person ignited two green blades from both ends of her double-bladed lightsaber, and started slashing away. There was one spot on a Zakkeg that was vulnerable, and that was its underbelly, which lacked the thick armor that shelled the rest of its body. Aden jumped on the belly of the beast, there was enough room for both of them, and hacked and slashed and stabbed away with the other human. The Zakkeg roared and thrashed about violently, but there was nothing it could do, it couldn't get back on its front.

Eventually, after a couple minutes of both humans slashing at its underside, the monster's roars subsided, and it struggled no more. Looking up, Aden looked at the newcomer. Pulling her white hood down, Aden looked into the beautiful face of Sira, his Miralukan friend. Being a Miraluka, she had no eyes, and instead saw through the force. She wore a dark blindfold to cover her eyeless lids, like most of her species. This didn't dampen her beauty though, it suited her well. Her delicate face was framed perfectly by her long, dark hair. Her full, almost pouty pink lips curled into a smirky little smile and she jumped from the Zakkeg's body, her slender yet curvaceous form flowing into a graceful backwards arch until she landed on the ground. Aden couldn't help admire her beauty, even though such thoughts were discouraged by the Jedi Order. He too jumped down from the maimed corpse of the Zakkeg, landing on the ground in front of his friend. Both kept their lightsabers activated so as to preserve the light, it was now pitch black in the jungle forest. The green of her blades mingled pleasantly with the blue of his.

"Nice job running away like that," she said in mock reproval.

"Yeah, well nice job escaping three starving Rancors, surviving a fifty meter fall, repelling a damn lake monster, and a pack of Maalraases, and half killing a Zakkeg. Oh wait that was me," Aden said.

As he stood there, exchanging friendly sarcasm with her, he felt like he was back home, or at least somewhere that he belonged, not in a dark, dangerous jungle filled with billions of things that would very much like to kill both of them. Her presence was warming and friendly.

"Pretty sure the Zakkeg took care of the Maalraases for you, but don't let me rain on your parade. Good job. For a man."

"Gee, thanks. What happened with the others?" he asked.

"Well, since most of the Rancors went after you, our masters quickly tranquilized and subdued the last two. After we were done there, we all went looking for you. The trails of the Rancors weren't hard to miss. We found the rest of them, and did the same. A republic transport is on its way to take them back to Dathomir."

"What about the deal we were supposed to bust?" Aden asked, curious. On the side of The Exchange, there was one Rodian dealer and three axe-wielding Gamorreans as backup. On the side of the buyers, who would be the Hutts, there was one Duros buyer, who had four Weequay mercenaries as back up, and all of them carried blaster rifles and thermal detonators.

With a flourish of her double-bladed saber, Sira answered. "They've been taken care of," she said, keeping that smirk-like smile.


	3. Chapter two

** Chapter two**

**L**ight years away, and one year later, Aden's head gave a little jerk as he snapped back to the present. He'd been daydreaming about his mission on Dxun. Not much had changed about him in the year since then, save for the stubbly beard on his face, which he kept well trimmed, and his hair was a little shorter. He was also, perhaps, a little more muscular, having undergone years of hard physical training. He was ascending a long set of stone stairs slowly, making his way up to the Hall of Knighthood. The only sound were his footsteps echoing along the inside of the tower he in.

Soon, he would officially become a full fledged Jedi Knight.

After all the years of study and training, after all the amazing and often dangerous adventures as a padawan, he had finally been told to present himself in the Hall of Knighthood, to be officially promoted to the rank of Knight. This was a bitter sweet victory in his eyes. He was progressing well in the life of a Jedi, but he would miss working with his master, Jex. Of course they were both Jedi, and would undoubtedly see each other again over the course of their careers, but the severance of their student-master relationship still weighed heavily on Aden's heart. He was on his own now. But that was a part of growing, and he felt excitement for his future. He had many more adventures to go on.

At last he walked up the last few steps of stairs, and came upon two large, beautiful ornate doors. He put his hands on them and hesitated. This was it….

He pushed the doors open and came into a darkened room in which about sixteen Jedi Masters of different species stood in a perfect circle. Aden immediately recognized every one of them as either being a member of the High Council, or masters of other prestige. The ones nearest him broke away from the cirlce and formed a kind of pathway for him to walk through to the center. They all then activated their lightsabers, and raised them in salute. This felt very odd, because he had immense respect and admiration for all of them, and to see them saluting him, giving him respect as an equal member of the order, gave him a sort of nervous excitement. The light from their blades spread a varied mixture of colors all across the room. These included the standard colors such as blue, for the Jedi Guardians, green for the Jedi Consulars, and yellow for the Jedi Sentinels. There were also non standard lightsaber colors, such as purple, cyan, and viridian. Aden himself was a Jedi Guardian, and the blue of his blade, as with all Jedi Guardians, signified courage and honor. He took a deep breath, and started walking slowly into the circle, his legs feeling strangely heavy. This was it; from this moment on he would be in charge of his own destiny.

This moment felt like the most important one of his life. He only wished his master were able to be part of the process.

He reached the center of the circle of Jedi masters, and knelt down facing Master Sao Kaar. A Zabrak former Battlemaster, Master Kaar was the Temple's current Grand Master, and as elected leader of the High Council, he also held the title of "Master of the Order." Kaar walked to the kneeling Aden, looked down upon him, and activated his lightsaber. The light from the blade was reflected in Aden's face and eyes.

"We are all Jedi. The Force speaks through us. Through our actions, the Force proclaims itself and what is real. Today we are here to acknowledge what the Force has proclaimed," Master Kaar said in a loud, clear voice.

With this said, Master Kaar took his lightsaber in both hands, and placed the blade above both of Aden's shoulders, one after the other. He kept the blade positioned above Aden's right shoulder, next to his padawan braid. The hum of the energy turned into a loud buzzing in his ear as he felt a surge of excitement, bracing himself for the act that would seal his knighthood.

"As Master of the Jedi Order, by right of the Council I declare you a full fledged Jedi Knight of the Republic. Go, and bring justice to the galaxy."

And with one swift upward swing of his lightsaber, Master Kaar severed the long braid that came down to Aden's shoulder, the braid that marked him as a padawan, which he now was no longer.

The next day, Aden was to be found in The Room of a Thousand Fountains. It was a vast greenhouse located in the base of the temple. There was no flooring placed, just soil, and no distinguishable walls or ceiling. Walking into it was like opening a door to an exotic rainforest. Everywhere in the room, waterfalls of different sizes cascaded down into a large plunge pool. There were also bridges and walkways made of stone that one could use to navigate through the falling water. The entire room was alive with fauna from various different worlds all across the galaxy, some of which were extremely rare. There were beautifully carved stone fountains as well, streaming water into intricate and beautiful patterns, some gigantic, and some so small they could fit in the palm of one's hand. Some of the larger ones depicted ancient heroes of the Republic, or scenes from great moments in galactic history. The entire thing looked as if a chunk had been taken out of a jungle planet and placed there in the temple.

The room was also filled with what was possibly the most peaceful sound in the universe. The calming choir of rushing water was soothing to the heart and mind, not to mention the gentle breezes that wafted through the room on occasion. All of these features made it the perfect spot for relaxation, or meditation.

Aden was about two and a half meters above the water of a small pond in the ground, facing the amazing sight of the waterfalls. He was in a state of Rising Meditation, focusing on the Force and it's network of life energy, while levitating two meters above a pond in a cross-legged sitting position. At this stage of higher consciousness he could feel the energy of the force flowing through his very being, carrying him in the current to everything around him.

He was concentrating on this collective energy flow, when he heard an echo of another presence. Someone was approaching him from the far reaches of the physical world. He knew this presence, and could read it's intentions, and he knew he was in trouble. Slowly, as though surfacing up from a deep well of water, he tried to draw his consciousness back to his physical surroundings, but in his deep meditative state he was too slow. As he awoke from his meditation he felt a small wave of energy push him to the side, and he lost his levitation and toppled over into the shallow water. Coming back up soaked and sputtering, he looked around. His former master, Jex, a human male in his early fifties, was standing beside the pond, laughing hard and clutching his sides.

"A simple call wouldn't suffice?" Aden asked, smiling. He'd long grown accustomed to his master's antics.

"You know me well enough to know the answer to that," Jex answered in his posh Coruscanti accent, recovering from his fit of amusement. Aden looked at his former master exasperatedly. The man was aging, lines appearing in his face, and his short, dark hair was graying. But in all his years the man hadn't lost an ounce of his signature charm. Aden walked out of the pond, each footstep making a small splash in the water. He walked over to Jex and embraced him like a father. And indeed, Jex wasn't just a mentor to him. He was a father figure for Aden his entire life.

"It's good to see you, old man," Aden said. "I was thinking you might just disappear."

"Me? Have you lost your mind, dear boy? You can't be rid of me that easi-" but his words were interrupted as Aden sent a force push back at him, and he tumbled into the pond. Jex came back up, drenched and laughing.

"You should know me better than to assume I won't retaliate, and your reflexes are getting slower!" Aden said through his own laughter.

"Such things happen with age, you'll learn soon enough. And I suppose I deserved that," Jex said. "Now, down to business."

"Ah, I figuered this wasn't just a casual visit. What is it?" Aden asked.

"You've got a job. As you know, normally you'd be summoned to collect your contract, but I thought I'd be the one to bring you your first independent assignment."

Aden felt a flush of interest and excitement. This was what he lived for.

"Ooh, good. What've you got for me?"

"An investigation. There have been some disappearances on Teth," Jex said. The pair had now started walking across a bridge with two wide waterfalls flowing down on either side, both of them sodden.

"Teth? That's in the Outer Rim. You know how lawless that place is. There are disappearances there every day, shouldn't the Republic be able to handle this?" Aden pointed out.

"True, but this is different. It's an entire city."

Aden stopped in his tracks and looked at Jex in shock. "An entire city?" he repeated in disbelief.

"Yes. All eighteen thousand occupants, disappeared without any evidence as to where they've gone. No signs of battle or struggle. It's as if they all just evaporated into the air" said Jex, also stopping.

Aden frowned, thinking. How could a whole city just disappear without a trace?

"So let me guess. The Republic asked for Jedi help?"

"Precisely," Jex nodded.

"And I'm to be part of that 'Jedi help'?"

"Indeed. There's a transport waiting for you in the hangar."

"Well, better sooner than later I guess," Aden said.


End file.
